


Before I Was The Dark One

by creatureofhobbit



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-19
Updated: 2016-04-19
Packaged: 2018-06-03 07:41:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6602482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Snow Queen tells Rumple he can rid himself of the dagger using the heart of one who had known him before he was the Dark One. But in this timeline, the only person left alive who knew him then isn't Hook. It's Bae. (Apologies to Hook fans for having had to kill him off. But Bae needed to be the only one still living from that time period for the plot to work.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before I Was The Dark One

From the moment that Rumpelstiltskin had been made to kiss Killian Jones’s boot, he had been determined that one day he would hunt down his love rival and kill him. Even now, he still savoured the memory of the moment that he had done so. He had never thought that there would come a time when he would wish that Killian was still alive, and yet now that time had come. Ingrid had told him that the only way that he could free himself of the dagger involved using the heart of one who had known him before he became the Dark One. And with Killian no longer in the picture, that meant that there was only one left alive who had known him back then: his son, Baelfire.

Rumpelstiltskin had found himself having to face this choice once before, when he had realised that Henry was not only the child referred to in the seer’s prophecy who was going to bring about his reunion with Bae but would also be his undoing. He had then had to face the decision as to whether he would still kill the boy as he had vowed back then, or whether to let him live, knowing as he did that killing Henry would irreparably damage his relationship with Bae. Now he had to face the choice of whether to remain trapped under the spell of the dagger, or to sacrifice his son.

And he also had to face the knowledge that if he had made the right decision all those years ago, he would not have found himself in this situation now. Rumpelstiltskin had known that without his power, he would just be the same man again who Milah had taunted with cowardice, the man she had abandoned in favour of the pirate Killian Jones. At the time they had made the deal, Rumpelstiltskin had believed that it was a deal he would never have to keep, because he did not believe Baelfire would ever find a way for Rumpelstiltskin to give up his powers. Even as Baelfire prepared to jump through the portal, Rumpelstiltskin had his doubts that he would actually go through with it. He had made the choice once before not to leave his father behind and accompany Pan to Neverland, and Rumpelstiltskin knew that even then Baelfire was not happy with the life they led. He was sure that Bae would choose to remain with his father again.

Yet Bae had proved him wrong, had made the decision to start a new life in the land without magic, and it had taken so many years for Rumple to find him again and to build a relationship with him once more. Was Rumple’s desire to rid himself of the dagger really strong enough for him to risk that relationship again? Plus there was Henry to consider, and Belle. He pictured the looks on both their faces as he had to break it to them that he had had to remove Baelfire’s heart purely for the purposes of ridding himself of the dagger.

For a moment he allowed himself to imagine the future he could have, with Belle, with Henry, away from a town filled with people who would always despise him for being the Dark One, whose memories of hurts he had inflicted upon them would never go away. He would be free of the hold the dagger had always had over him, free from the voice of Zoso which had haunted his thoughts so many times over the years.

But what did this future mean at all without Bae, the whole reason for his having cast the curse in the first place? So he knew he had to tell the Snow Queen no, that he would take his chances with remaining under the power of the dagger. As she taunted him with the fact that he would never have given up his power and everyone knew it, Rumple reflected that yes, there was truth in that. But he had to put Bae first now as he had not done all those years ago. This time, he was making a deal with himself, and he wasn’t going to break it. This time, he was choosing Bae.


End file.
